Mortuary Donates Services to Youth Who Died Protecting 2 Girls : Tragedy: Rayshaun Love’s family didn’t have the money to pay for a funeral. An Antelope Valley couple step in to help make arrangements.

A Newhall mortuary will provide a casket, funeral service and burial without charge for Rayshaun Love, a Lancaster teen-ager who was fatally shot while protecting two girls from gunfire at a pay-to-enter party.

After Love’s relatives said they did not have the money for a service and burial, Gregg and Laura Taylor, an Antelope Valley couple who work in the funeral industry, helped arrange the donation at Eternal Valley Memorial Park and Mortuary.

“They did something that was very wonderful,” Diann Wright, Love’s aunt, said Monday. “They were a godsend.”

Love, 17, was hailed as a hero for shielding the girls when a dispute among other party-goers led to gunfire in the garage of a Lancaster home early Dec. 19. His family suffered another blow the next day when Love’s half-brother, Eric Lamont Gunn, 22, was arrested as a suspect in Love’s killing.

Investigators believe Gunn fired shots at the party but do not believe he was aiming at his half-brother.

Wright said the family had difficulty trying to raise the money to cover the cost of Love’s burial. “It’s really been hard because it’s Christmas,” she said.

Gregg Taylor said he and his wife were pleased they could help.

“We are all very isolated up here in the Antelope Valley,” he said. “We have to be our own community. For us to work together and find a solution for this family in their time of need, here at the holiday season, that’s what it’s all about.”

Taylor, a Quartz Hill resident, said he met Rayshaun Love through a youth basketball team he coaches. Love did not play on the team but was friendly with several of its members, Taylor said. In addition, Love had attended Highland High School with Taylor’s sister, Tiffany, who was at the Dec. 19 party but left before the shooting occurred.

After hearing that Love’s family could not afford a funeral, Taylor’s wife, Laura, who works for Valley Oaks Memorial Park in Westlake Village, contacted a corporate supervisor at Service Corp. International, SCI, which owns Valley Oaks and Eternal Valley.

Daniel Lang, area vice president for SCI, approved the donation of a casket, funeral service and burial plot at Eternal Valley. Lang, who lives in Palmdale, said he knew of the family’s difficulties through news reports.

“It’s kind of a tragic situation to happen right before Christmas,” he said. “Our way of helping them out was to take care of this for them.”

Several people familiar with funerals said the service, casket and burial plot would have cost the family at least $6,000.

“I think it was absolutely great on their part,” said Rev. Henry Hearns, a minister who serves on the Lancaster City Council. Hearns said Love’s family has asked him to participate in the funeral service.

Visiting hours for Love will be from 2 to 5 p.m. Wednesday at the mortuary, 23287 N. Sierra Highway, Newhall. The service will begin in the mortuary’s chapel at 10 a.m. Thursday.

Wright, Love’s aunt, said the family needs assistance in driving relatives to and from the service in Newhall. She urged anyone who can help to call her at (805) 940-1902.